102 minutes : the untold story of the fight to survive inside the Twin Towers / Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dwyer, Jim, 1957-2020.

Contributor:

Flynn, Kevin, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World Trade Center (New York, N.Y. : 1970-2001).

September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001.

Victims of terrorism--New York (State)--New York.

Victims of terrorism.

Buildings--Evacuation--New York (State)--New York.

Buildings.

Rescue work--New York (State)--New York.

Rescue work.

Self-preservation.

Buildings--Evacuation.

New York (State)--New York.

Self-preservation--New York (State)--New York.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 322 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

One hundred two minutes

Place of Publication:

New York : Times Books, 2005.

Summary:

At 8:46 A.M. on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were inside the twin towers-reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the World. Over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages, one witnessed only by the people who lived it-until now.

Of the millions of words written about this wrenching day, most have been from the outside looking in. New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have taken the opposite-and far more revealing-approach. Reported solely from the perspective of the people inside the towers, 102 Minutes is the epic account of ordinary men and women who saved themselves and others. Among them: The construction manager and his colleagues, who pried open doors and freed dozens of people trapped high in the north tower, The police officer who was a few blocks away, filing his retirement papers, but grabbed back his badge and sprinted to the buildings, The window washer stuck in an elevator fifty floors up with five other men, who used a squeegee to escape, The secretaries who led an elderly man down eighty-nine flights, and the young executives who carried a disabled woman from the 68th floor, The fire chief (and marathoner) who was the first rescuer to reach the injured and the trapped on the 78th floor of the south tower, after a grueling dash up the stairs wearing fifty pounds of gear.

Chance encounters, moments of grace, a shout across an office shaped these minutes, marking the border between fear and solace, staking the boundary between life and death.

From hundreds of interviews with rescuers and survivors, thousands of pages of oral histories, and countless phone, e-mail, and emergency radio transcripts, Dwyer and Flynn have assembled a gripping narrative that is also investigative reporting of the first rank. They show that even as so many people-uniformed officers and civilians alike-responded with great valor, they did so in a context of inadequate building safety and tragic flaws in New York's emergency preparedness.

Crossing a bridge of voices to go inside the infernos, seeing cataclysm and heroism one person at a time, Dwyer and Flynn tell the affecting, authoritative saga of the men and women-the 12,000 who escaped and the 2,749 who perished-as they made 102 minutes count as never before.

Contents:

352 People at the World Trade Center xiii

1 "It's a bomb, let's get out of here" 13

2 "It's going to be the top story of the day" 21

3 "Mom, I'm not calling to chat" 35

4 "We have no communication established up there yet" 45

5 "Should we be staying here, or should we evacuate?" 63

6 "Get away from the door!" 80

7 "If the conditions warrant on your floor, you may wish to start an orderly evacuation" 89

8 "You can't go this way" 101

9 "The doors are locked" 126

10 "I've got a second wind" 146

11 "I'm staying with my friend" 166

12 "Tell the chief what you just told me" 184

13 "We'll come down in a few minutes" 211

14 "You don't understand" 228

Lost 262.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0805076824

OCLC:

55990408